Thank you, Sherry. I'm quite sure that this message
will be a real blessing to those who love God's salvation. That's
the title of the message, Such as Love by Salvation, taken from
verse 16. As said, I've already tried this
on some believers, and they seem to really enjoy it. Look at verse 16. This is the
verse we are dwelling on. Let those that seek thee rejoice
and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, The Lord be magnified. Does that interest
you? Those that love thy salvation.
Now David is the writer. David is called by God a man
after God's own heart. He was loved by God, and he loved
God. It's evident. He spoke often
and continually, as he told us, of God's salvation. Throughout
the Psalms, if you've read, you will read over and over how he
speaks of God's salvation, God's mercy, God's grace, God's love,
God's redemption, God's righteousness, on and on. God's salvation. And in fact, David repeated these
very words in Psalm 70. I told you I was going to be
dealing with Psalm 70 tonight. Well, it's the same thing. The
last five verses in Psalm 70 are the last five verses of Psalm
40. It's not just a repetition, but
David actually wrote it again. He wrote it again. And it says
in Psalm 70, it's a psalm of remembrance, to remember, something
we need to remember. And you who have read this before
will recognize the words of our Lord here, didn't you? In verses
7 through 10, look at it. I said this was David's psalm.
Well, this is a Messianic psalm, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ
is speaking in verse 7, who said, Lo, then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. Christ said, They are they which
testify of me. Someone is coming. He said, I
am come to do, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law, thy word, thy law
is within my heart. He said, I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Whose righteousness? God's righteousness. Lo, he says, I have not refrained
my lip. O Lord, thou knowest. I have
not hid thy righteousness within my heart. Christ came to declare
it. He said, I have declared thy
faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the great congregation." So Christ came,
Christ Himself being a preacher, and He came to preach, He said. I have come to preach. What did
He preach? God's righteousness, which was Him. Christ Himself. God's faithfulness. God's salvation. God's faithfulness being His
covenant. God's salvation. God's lovingkindness. God's truth. Well, David wrote this, but these
are the words of Christ. And you know that David could
say this from the heart, couldn't he? And so can I. So can you. As he is, so are we. I preach and you witness and
declare God's righteousness, don't you? That's what we do
here. We have preached righteousness in the great congregation of
heaven. We haven't refrained from that. Whose righteousness? God's righteousness, which is
Christ, who is Christ. We have not hid His righteousness. Some call this higher doctrine
or family doctrine and so on and so forth. But Paul wrote,
he said, if our gospel be hid, It's not because we hid it. It's
hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath
blinded their mind, lest they should believe. But now we pray.
We're not a psalm, he said, which corrupt the Word of God. But
as of sincerity, as of God, in the sight of God, we preach Christ,
God's righteousness. And he said, I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation. This is all that we declare every
time we stand up. And when you go out to, when
you talk to someone, What do you declare? God's faithfulness. God's salvation. That's what
we said. His loving kindness and his truth. So as he is, so was David. And so as he is, as Christ was
and is, so are we in this world. We delight, God's people delight
in God's will. God's people. delight in God's
will. The world delights in their will,
free will, don't they? They put it on top of their so-called
church building. And that's the highest form of
blasphemy I know. It's only one who has a free
will. Whoever has a free will is God. A free will means you
do as you will, when you will, with whom you will, because you
will. Now, who's God? Who does as He will? Only God. We can never say, I will anything,
can we? Never! We can never say, I can't
say, I will breathe the next moment. We can never say, I will
do anything. We say, the Lord willing. That's
what we say. All Armenians are Calvinists
when they pray. God, if you will, they say. Well,
that's just the fact of the matter. God's will alone is free. We
delight in His will, don't we? God's people delight in the freeness
and the sovereignty of God's will. And what is his will? Don't we
delight to do his will? What is his will? This is the
will of the Father, which has sent me, Christ said, that everyone
that seeth the Son What must we do to do the works of God,
to do His will, to do the truth? Believe on Him whom God has sent.
Don't you delight to do that? We're going to get into that
more in a moment. But we delight in God's will. We preach, we
declare His righteousness, not our own, Christ's righteousness,
His faithfulness, His salvation. And David, like Christ, was hated
for the truth, wasn't he? He was talking about that. He
said, those that hate me seek to destroy me. They hated him
without a cause. Just like Christ himself, David
was hated without a cause, and so will you be, for the truth's
sake. He said, let them be ashamed
and let them be confounded, let them be turned back, and they
will be. Everyone who goes after other gods will someday be ashamed. Everyone who believes another
gospel will someday be turned back, that is turned out, turned
away from heaven. And Christ said this, he said
to us, his disciples and us, he said, if the world hates you,
listen to this, if the world hates you, you know it hated
me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love its own. But because you're not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hated you. And that's our consolation. I
hate you for the truth's sake. I hate you for loving God's salvation.
That's it in a nutshell. I hate you for loving God's salvation. So the scripture says, now, the
scripture says in verse 16, let all those that seek thee rejoice
and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation. Say continually, all the time,
the Lord be magnified. So let's, as we look at this,
let's see if you love, if you seek Him and rejoice in Him and
see if you love His salvation, okay? If you do, you must be
a man after God's own heart. He says, let all those that seek
Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee. Now, there are many people who
seek many things, don't they? I run into them all the time.
People come all the time or ask me or say to me, we're looking
for a church. Well, people are looking for
a mate, looking for companionship, looking for programs for their
children, looking for entertainment, looking for whatever. The world
is looking for happiness, prosperity, and all that. But the Lord says,
if you seek Me, Seeking me, you'll find me when you search for me
with all your heart. And those that seek Him and rejoice
and are glad in Him are those that belong to Him. Let me give
you an illustration. There were thousands who followed
Jesus, just like now. Thousands who followed Jesus
when He walked this earth. And he turned to them. He would
turn to them and say, you seek me because of the loaves and
fishes. Remember that? You seek me for
what you can get out of me, for filling your belly, food and
so forth. Another time he said, you seek me because of the miracles. You're impressed. You want to
see these things. You're impressed. And then another
time it says he did not commit himself to them. He knew what
was in them. That's what they were after. Well, over in John
chapter 1 is a story of some fellows who came to the disciples
looking for Christ. And they said to whoever it was
that answered the door, Peter or Andrew or whoever, they said,
sirs, yes, what may we do for you? They said, sirs, we would
see Jesus. We want to see Jesus. We want to hear Him. We want
to talk to Him. We want to sit and listen to
Him. Is He here? We're looking for Him. That's
what they said. Well, they went and told the
Lord. And He came, I guess He came to the door and said, What? What seekest thou? What seekest
thou? And they said, All of them. I
don't know how many there were. But they said, where dwelleth
thou? Where do you live? We want to
come there and just sit and listen and talk to you. He said, come
and sit. And it says they came, they saw,
and they stayed there. They stayed there. They abode
there. They were seeking Him. They found
Him. If Christ is all, when you find
Him, you've got it all, don't you? Huh? All. Well, come and see, he said.
Now, why does anyone seek the Lord? Why does anyone seek the
Lord? Well, it's like those who love
God. They love Him because He first
loved them, right? And those who seek the Lord,
seek Him because He first sought and found them. Don't you love
Isaiah 65 verse 1? He said, I am sought of them
that ask not for me. Only believers understand what
that means. I am sought of them that ask
not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. Here's an illustration of that.
I'm found of them that sought me not. The Lord came looking
for his disciples, didn't he? He left the nine and nine, like
the good shepherd that he was, in search of that one lost sheep,
more than in the case of many. And he found them. They were
right where he put them, in boats, up trees, and so forth. And he found them. Well, one
time he came, he found Philip sitting under a fig tree or something,
wasn't he? He found Philip. Well, a little
while later, Philip said to Nathanael, we've found him. Well, both is true, right? After he seeks you and finds
you, you start seeking him. Little do you know, you've already
been found, or else you wouldn't be seeking. So that's what that
means. I'm sought of them that has not
for me. And so all God's people, they do call, they do seek, but
not first. Joel 2.32 is where Romans 10.13
comes from. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. The very last line says the remnant.
The remnant whom the Lord our God shall call. That's who calls. Every one of them. They'll call
on the name of the Lord. They'll seek Him and they will
find Him. And they will rejoice in Him
and be glad in Him. Here's the point. They'll be
glad in Him. It's a marriage, you know that?
That's what this thing is, a marriage. It's Christ coming to look for
His gomer. It's Boaz coming and finding
his Ruth in his field, where he put her, with handfuls on
purpose. It's a marriage. Christ is the
bridegroom. We're the bride and He comes
looking for her. The gomer is that story in Hosea of that woman
who was a forlorn woman and the Lord told the prophet Hosea,
go marry her. And that's a picture of Christ,
because he got great glory. He didn't marry a fine woman,
an upstanding woman, a faithful woman, but a forlorn woman, a
prostitute. That way he gets all the glory for doing the loving,
doing the saving, doing the redeeming. And he changed her. He did it. Well, this is a marriage,
and it is a marriage made in heaven. Yes it is. And the bride rejoices in the
bridegroom. The bride rejoices in the bridegroom.
She's, he's the one she rejoices in, and vice versa. She's glad
in him. And this is what Paul said in
Philippians. He said, true circumcision, God's
true people worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. They rejoice and are glad in
him. They rejoice and are glad in him. Let me ask you a few
questions. Do you rejoice that Jesus is
the Christ indeed, that He really is the Christ, meaning the Mediator,
the Substitute, the Redeemer? Do you rejoice that He is God?
A lot of people argue against that, don't they? They go door
to door arguing against it, don't they? That's how zealous they
are against it, John. Don't you rejoice that He is
God? Can you say with calmness, my
Lord and my God? Don't you rejoice that He's God?
Only God can save us. Only God can put away our sin.
That's what they said in mockery to Christ, didn't they? When
the man over Mark 7, where he said, thy sins be forgiven them.
And they said, well, who can forgive sins but God? That's right. Aren't you glad
He's God? If He's not God, then that man
who came years ago, 2,000 years ago, was the greatest imposter
that ever lived. And we're yet in our sins, and we're still
looking for some kind of Savior. But He is God. I keep quoting
Psalm 25 and 9. It's one of my favorite verses.
It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God. We've waited
on Him. This is our God. He'll save us. Do you rejoice in, we're talking
about the Lord, do you rejoice in Jehovah Jireh? That means the Lord, our provider,
that the Lord will see to it. My dad used to say that old Southern
saying, I'll see to it. Ask him something, he'll say,
I'll see to it. Meaning, I'll take care of it. Well, that's
what Abraham called the Lord coming down on that mountain,
that Moriah, where he said, My son, the Lord will provide Himself
a lamb for a burnt offer. Jehovah, the Lord, our provider. Do you rejoice that He has provided
all things for us? Do you rejoice in the Lord, our
peace, Jehovah Shalom? The Lord, our peace that you
rejoice that you don't have to make peace when you were going
to lay on your deathbed. You have to make your peace with
God. That's already been done. My Christ, who made peace by
the blood of his cross, don't you rejoice? Everybody does.
Do you rejoice in the Lord, your shepherd? Psalm 23. You know, really only the Lord's
people. Sheep. Only the sheep can really enter
into that. When you say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. That means you shall not want.
You shall not lack. That means you're complete in
Him. He talks about all those things.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life. Lo, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
I fear no evil. Thou art with me. Who? The Lord,
my shepherd. He's never lost a sheep. He's
never lost a sheep. You understand that? The Lord
Jesus Christ has never lost a sheep. He said, they'll never perish.
He said, all that thou hast given me, I've kept. I've lost none.
Is that your Lord? Do you rejoice in him? Everybody
doesn't have that Lord Jesus. Some believe in another Jesus
who's lost quite a few. Well, they can have him, can't
you? But I rejoice in the Lord Jehovah Ra'ah. The Lord my shepherd. Don't you?
The Lord is my shepherd. And maybe you're tired of hearing
about old Abner, but I'm not. Old Abner's got it made. When
I chose him, I believe he's been glad ever since. You know, he
came to an awful good place. He's going to be taken care of
all the days of his life. Well, how much more if the Lord
is your shepherd? Do you rejoice in Jehovah Sidkenu? Sidkenu, what does that mean?
It means the Lord our righteousness. And we always labor this point
that it's more than a doctrine. It is. It's not an it. It's a person. that were accepted
in a person, in the beloved, that we come far short of the
glory of God. He didn't. God is well pleased
for his righteous sake, and so he's well pleased with me. He's
not angry with me. I'm a sinner. He doesn't view
me as such. Aren't you glad? That's what
it means to rejoice in Him and be glad in Him. Aren't you glad
that He reigns and rules? I mean, He really does. Again,
this is not just a doctrine, Vicki. Our God reigneth. the Lord reigneth. Say to Vicki
Patton, her Lord reigneth. He's not trying to. He is. Aren't
you glad? Don't you rejoice in the Lord? Do you see the difference? Those that seek Him rejoice and
be glad in Him. Aren't you glad? Aren't you rejoicing? He's seated right now. The work's
finished. Not that He did all that can do. No, no, no. He did
all that there is to do. Aren't you glad that He said
those words on Calvary's tree? It's finished? And you can just rest in Him. Aren't you glad in Him? Those who truly seek and find
Him, they're satisfied from that day forward with Him. And that's what you do. That's
what we do. We come here to worship Him. Folks that don't rejoice in Him,
aren't glad in Him, won't be satisfied here very long. Because
we just don't have anything else, do we? I mean, really, let's
get to the point now. If anybody really rejoices in
God our Savior, and rejoices to hear God exalted and Christ
exalted, And now they'll really enjoy coming here. If not, we
just don't have anything else. So let me ask you, is this all
you need? You need anything else? That's
a good sign. Let those that seek thee rejoice
and be glad in thee. Look at the next line. Let such
as love thy salvation. Say continually. The Lord be
magnified. Let such as love thy salvation. God's salvation. Here's God's
salvation. You've heard it before. You're
going to hear it again. God's salvation is how that God
first loved his people. God first loved us. Oh, not that
we loved him, but that he first loved us. This is God's salvation.
This is the Bible salvation. that God Almighty sovereignly
set His love upon a bunch of unlovely sinners, the chief of
sinners. Yes, He did. And once loved by God. Always
loved. It's eternal. And it never fails.
This is God's salvation. When God purposed, when God Almighty
set His love on somebody, that person is loved. And will always
be loved. And we'll be safe. It was love
at first sight with that child, wasn't it? Love at first sight? I asked them both. I said, would
you lay down your life for that child right now? They said, wouldn't
even take a thought. Wouldn't even stop to think about
it. It's instinct now. Instinct. Look, will you do all that's
necessary for that child the rest of your day? How much more? See, this is God's salvation.
Whoever he loves, he is loved, buddy. And all that that means.
And God gives God salvation. God chose a people. God elected
a people. Now, he didn't have to, did he? He didn't have to. As a matter
of fact, he shouldn't have. Old Brother Berner used to say,
you better be glad I'm not God. Well, I am. I'm glad he wasn't
God. Because our God is merciful.
He delights to show mercy. He said, I will show mercy. I
will have mercy. I will be gracious on whom I
will. And He chose. He elected them. That's God's salvation. God's
salvation is He predestined everything. Those that He loved, those that
He chose and elected, He predestined everything. concerning them for
the rest of their lives and throughout eternity. He predestined, predetermined
every single thing concerning them. From the number of hairs
on their head, to the number of days they lived, to everything
about them. He predetermined it and wrote
it in the book and sealed the book. Aren't you glad? There's no chance,
there's no accidents, there's no luck, it's not luck. This is God's salvation. God
Almighty, God the Son, came down to this earth. God was manifest
in the flesh. He came to this earth to save
these people of Him. He came to do everything necessary
to save them. And He did just that. This is God's salvation.
When we talk about salvation, we're talking about salvation.
God's salvation. He actually saved. When His name
was announced, they said, call His name Jesus. Why? means Savior,
for He shall save His people. This is God's salvation. You
rejoice in that? You love God's salvation? And
in God the Holy Spirit, they're born, these people whom He chose
before the world began, they're born in time, they're born sinners.
And the way that they are regenerated, the way that they are given life,
the way that they are born again, born from above, is with this
incorruptible seed, the Word of God. And this is the Word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. And God the Holy Spirit
sends a preacher, and through the preaching of the gospel,
he calls them. For whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate.
Whom he predestinated, he called by our gospel. And it's not begging,
it's not pleading, it's not offering, it's not bribing, it's not that,
it's just declaring. Like we said in Isaiah. Or here,
Psalm 40. Just declaring. And he said,
my sheep will hear my voice. In my time, in due time, in the
fullness of time, my sheep will hear my voice. They'll think
it's me talking, and it is. And I call them by the gospel. Call them to cry, come unto me.
And they come. Every one of them. They come. All that the Father
has given me shall come unto me. And him that cometh I will in
no way cast out. And God Almighty grants every
grace necessary for them. God of all grace will supply
every grace for them all the days of their life. Food, rain,
everything. And God Almighty, this is God's
salvation. And God Almighty gives them repentance. They've got
to repent when He gives it. They've got to have faith. By
grace you say through faith. Well, it's not of yourself. It's
the gift of God. And He gives it to everyone I believe. They've
got to have a new heart. God gives it. A new creature
God makes them want. This is God's salvation. Salvation
is up to the Lord. So He says, Let all who love
thy salvation. Say continually. That means preach
it whenever you get up to preach. Preach this. Whenever you want
to talk to somebody, say this. Continually, always, at all times,
to everyone and every place. Say this. Here it is. Let God
be magnified. Let God be magnified. Magnified
means lifted up. It means extolled. It means honored.
It means declared. It means enlarged. When you magnify
something, it means you blow it up, make it much larger than
you thought it was. When you magnify something, you
see things you didn't see before, don't you? We say, that's what we're doing,
is trying to, you know, we talk about this great salvation. Well,
a half has never been done. The half has never been done.
We talk about God's mercy. A half has never been done. So
every time we're going to talk about it, so hopefully we'll
see something greater about our God. Something more glorious.
And you can't, you can't exalt Him too much. So, he said, let
those that seek thee, if you find your rejoicing and gladness
in him, and just hearing him, that's a good sign. Let those
that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee, and let such as
love thy salvation, salvation that's of the Lord, the author
and the finisher. Say continually, well, praise
the Lord. Let God be magnified. Okay, stand
with me. Our Lord, thank You, thank You,
thank You for revealing Yourself to us and in us. We thank You.
We do seek Thee and we do rejoice and are glad that Thou art God
and beside Thee there is none else. We are so happy, so glad,
and rejoice in the Lord our Savior, that our God reigns, that our
Christ is Christ, our Redeemer. We thank You, Lord, that You
have revealed Him to us and in us, a love for Him who is the
truth. We do love Him, Lord, because
Thou first loved us. Thou knowest. And, Lord, we rejoice
We love thy salvation. We're so glad that salvation
is of the Lord. And we would have it that way.
And we say amen. And so we say, those who rejoice
and are glad in thee and love thy salvation, we say, let God
be magnified, glorified. And it's in Christ's name we're
met here tonight. Amen. You're dismissed.